Anyone else aghast at the cost of emergency Vet care now?  Finding a vet who provides their own after hours cover is virtually impossible, which leavea no option but to use the local emergency place, operating out of the PDSA hospital - pretty much all the local vets are signed up to it.  The service is efficient and friendly, but the costs!   I have had to have an out of hours C section 3 times now, over 3 years, all on the same toy breed, all pretty much identical circumstances - bicth had produced several pups then stopped, with more to come, in each case at sometime between 10pm and midnight.  3 years ago the cost was just under £400, last year it was just under £700, and last night it was just over £1000! I cna't believe there can be any justification for this level of fees and how the increase over 3 years can be explained!  I also wonder waht happens to the dogs whose owners can't afford to pay this level of fees.  The receptionist was telling people as they phoned (apologetically) that the consultation fee was £125.  Is the common all over the UK?

dont know about C sections, but I have had 4 emergency call outs in the last 2 days :-(  havent had the bill yet, last year my call outs were very cheap in comparison to some of the costs people on here have been billed

my last call out bill.. 9.30 on a Sunday night if I recall.. was around £30 plus medication.. I think the whole bill came to around £70 (ish) :-)

ETA.. my vet still covers 24hours.. he even phoned me at 10.30pm to find out how my girl was doing.. :-)

Gwen I thought that was the norm!  I had one in January this year, out of hours, but provided by my own vet.  It cost £1,068.  And 3 last year.  One was over £800 and 2 were in normal office hours £648 each.  All those girls went on to be spayed after litters had left home.  So pricey eh?  I still keep my spayed girls though, I can't sell them on afterwards.  Not sure what happens to folk who can't afford it!  I didn't have the cash, and payed by credit card, and worried about the cost after, I couldn't not have it done, what if any of my bitches had died?

I know this is not the same as breeding but when I needed the out of hours emergency vet earlier on this year (cav had bad accident and ended up loosing her eye) I was told if I could not pay I had to sign her over to them. The PDSA would then pay and she would be found a good home.   Thankfully my mum paid the bill for me as we were in the middle of changing Insurance companies.

Linda

That's awful, if you can't pay the PDSA you have to sign your dog over?  I thougth the PDSA helped pet owners who could not pay?  The out of hours service my vet uses (and therefore I have to) is based in the PDSA hospital, but completley seperate, apart form using facilities.  In a way I suppose I am glad to read hear that osmeone else ahs had to face these sort of high bills, but can't work out why is is so high!  Vets sued to provide 24 hour cover, using own facilities so had all the overheads to cover, and the costs were not anything like so much higher than the usual rates.

We had an out of hours C section 3 weeks ago and it cost £157 but that is the norm for round here.

Peanuts

Peanuts I think I should move nearer to you!  I paid that when one of my girls ripped her dew claw!  No GA by the way!

my friend had a emergency c section uterus removed and spayed cost her £300 that was including anti biotics she also had pyo i think,,another bitch ended up with a c section cost just under £200,, i hope this helps we have a great vet we dont pay consultation fees..

wow thats good peanuts

we were a bit worried about our nursing bitch in the night as she was acting funny... so we had to take her to the emergency vets 30 minutes away from us

they did NOTHING and were not helpful at all.. it didnt help that we were on edge because she developed a splenic tumor during pregnancy and had to have an emergency operation to have it removed 4 weeks before the puppies were born...

we were there for about 15 minutes before they shoved us out of the door £150 out of pocket
...

(we went to the vets the next day and they put her on antibiotics straight away, she had picked up a bug through lack of splene..) luckily pups were almost weaned

I know sounds unreal dosn't it, when i used to live in London the prices were soooo bad and high, when we moved up here my little yorkie had to visit the vets and it turned out that he had cushins diesese ( not sure of the spelling ) he had to stay in for 3 days for tests, 2 xrays, ultrasound, etc, when i went to pick him up you can imagine what i was expecting to pay, nearly fainted when they told me the bill was £99 . i asked them to check and double check but it was right.

Peanuts

Think I'm gonna move near peanuts with my bunch of animals.

Linda

Ouch!  That does seem very expensive, one of my girls had an emergency c-section (cocker spaniel) and emergency spaying at the same time at 2am, total cost £570, I know the cost of the op goes against the size of the dog. 

Typically these things always happen out of hours don't they!

Peanuts is in South Wales, maybe I should change vets too, those prices are great in comparison.

I had a c section on a Border Terrier at 3am on a Sunday morning, plus antibiotics, and a follow up, and I wa £175, our vets are very good, and if you have a zoo like i do, they give you great discount, very James Herriot style surgery, but the vets are nicest, friendliest you could find, there own pets wander round the surgery, and the 3 legged cat that never left the surgery!!

I have a fantastic friendly vet but with my managerie 6 dogs, 3 cats, and other fluffies and reptiles I think I have had discount twice, and when they need animals looking after and bringing back to health, they phone me and yes stupid that I am do it for no cost (I obviously don't have my head screwed on right)

Linda

consultsion for my boy last year was 80.00 and i had to take him 15 miles away.
(Bad reaction to a bee sting)
total for all treatment etc was 235.00 pounds but i did get it back from the insurance.
Which im guessing you dont with breeding issues.
That sort of increase does seem alot to me in three years.

I paid over £200 on boxing day, early evening for antibiotic shot and pain killing shot for mastitis in my Jozi with instructions to see my own Vet in the morning.

It was my own vet who showed me how to strip off the infected milk, and then gave me a course of antibiotics, cost about £50.

hi gwen you know me from the shows i have pugs too its maureen from trimdon i have a great vets in northallerton which takes me 40 mins from home and he is fab and very flexible about everything from giving you information and very good price wise and he has just put his prices up he is talking about getting another practice soon in darlington i had a c section done out of hours last september for a pug and it cost me £380 including pain releif and antiboitics and you get to help with the c section and watch which i really like the fact that he is so laid back and he really does know his stuff, had another c setion on a mastiff and all her bits removed which was about £500 and she was a large dog with 13 pups, sadly she and pups all died,  can give you his details worth trevelling that little bit extra when you find a vet that is good at what he does and is reasonable with his prices also comes out to your house my bicth had 8 pups  1 born dead on monday natuarally but she was unsettled and panting alot so he came out with scanner and calcium and  antibiotics she had another jelly pup still inside her gave her some oxitocin and she is fine now puts his feet up and has a cuppa and i haven't paid him yet theres no rush he says will settle up next time i'm in vets let me know if you want his details not sure if i can give you them on here or you could give me a ring, maureen ps hows your bitch and pups doing hope there all ok

Hi Pugsie,  sounds a great sort of vet, will pm you for details, if you don't mind, especially if they are thinking of opening up in Darlington, which is about 45 mins from here, which is same as the emergency vets. 

Reading all the posts there does seem to be a very big difference in costs, I know overheads differ, but the increse in 3 years seems incredible. I am going to write to them tomorrow, and see what they say.

Forgot to say, bitch and pups doing fine.  One very tiny boy who I am supplementing wiht a bottle as he is having a little trouble latching on for long (he is only 3oz)  but fingers crossed everything will be OK.  Bunty is very laid back, and is ahppy for me ot put th epups on to feed, but otherwise not at all interested.

hi gwen not very good at all this short hand what does pm mean my smallest one was 4.5oz and the biggest was 6.6oz ive just been putting the smallest ones on when the big ones are sleeping and they get a fair go at the milk

i ts hard when theve had a section for them to bond my bitch last year was the same was only willing to let me put them on to feed but would do nothing else for them ie cleaning them and make them do the toilet i put some butter on their little bits which encoureged her to lick them done that for a few days and eventually she would lick them and ended up being a great mum

Hi Gwen

I was involved with two bitches recently who both had to have out of hours c section and emergency spey.  The first was treated by my own vet and cost £245 the second one was treated by an out of hours service who use PDSA centre and cost £1000.

My own vet is now using AVOC (Aryshire Vets On Call) to cover out of hours care from Saturday midday to Monday am, which gives the two vets the weekend off.  Touch wood I have been lucky in not needing there services, it's a bit like your doctor, dentist etc you get used to dealing with one or two people but in an emergency any one who can help is welcomed.  And if needed cost doesn't really matter, you can deal with it later unless of course it is a practise that wants payment before you leave the premises.

Glad to see the pups are doing ok and  I hope the little one grows stronger each day.

Joan

Hi pugsie,  sorry, my post was veyr jumbled due to being a lousy typist and also very tired!  PM means private message, if you click on messages at the top you iwll see messages to you which others can't read, and you can reply to them.

Ive never known the pdsa to ask for an animal to be signed over and then rehomed in this kind of situation. Pdsa runs on contributions so therefore cost would be irrelevent.. vets now etc maybe different but they are not part of the same company.

im shocked

Donna x
(and my boysxx)

Just a quick update - I complained to the Vets Now HO, and was refunder over £300, which made it almost the same as last year, much more reasonable.

Good on you Gwen!  And I'm glad to hear they've refunded that sort of amount :)

My vet also uses the same out of hours cover as your vet Gwen which I am not happy about and they know it.
I was quoted £1,200 last December for a c-section for one remaining pup and £30.00 per pup to revive them....fortunately my girl passed her pup and didn't need the section. I appreciate out of hours cover is not cheap but £1,200 is OTT in my opinion.

Glad to hear you have recieved a refund.

I haven't had to use our vet for an out of hours c section, but last weekend we had to take one of our 5 week old pups to the emergency vet.  He had a shot of painkiller and a course of antibiotics and it only cost £72.  A lot of money, but way less than I thought we would be charged.  It was nice that our vet doesn't sign up to the local out of hours service as the surgery they use is £30 miles away.

I think it really pays to shop around when it comes to vets and their prices and services.  We travel 5 miles further than our nearest vets because of the issue of the out of hours service, plus our new vet is much cheaper than our old one.